Ostrea lurida’s potential role as a foundation species has not been explored, so little is understood about ecosystem services produced by ongoing restoration efforts for the United States’ only native oyster species on the west coast. Further, the ef . . .

Adult California grunion, Leuresthes tenuis, spawn on sandy beaches during spring high tides. Embryos develop within the sand enclosed in the chorion, which must be strong enough to protect the embryo but also allow rapid hatching. Grunion embryos are . . .

Rocky intertidal grazers with similar morphologies and ecological habitats likely compete for food and space. Two intertidal limpets Lottia scabra and L. conus (Gastropoda: Lottidae), are alike in their morphology and overlap in range in southern Cali . . .

In the unicellular green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, the D1 protein, which is the main electron acceptor of photosystem II, is encoded by the chloroplastic psbA gene. Translation of D1 is regulated by a set of nuclear-encoded RNA-binding proteins . . .

Apolipoprotein E (apoE) is a crucial protein involved with cholesterol homeostasis and is a genetic risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease. Apomine and simvastatin are potent cholesterol-reducing compounds that mediates their actions through inhibition o . . .

The purpose of this study was 1) to measure fruit yield of navel orange trees and the plants’ physiological responses to regulated deficit irrigation (RDI) and 2) to determine if plant-based measures, including stem water potentials (stem), sap flow . . .

Evolutionary trees present hypotheses of the relationships among taxa. Some undergraduate biology students have trouble properly interpreting relationships on these trees; instead of using the most recent common ancestor (MRCA), many students use alte . . .

Multidrug resistant Acinetobacter baumannii, a common etiologic agent of severe nosocomial infections in compromised hosts, usually harbors aac(6’)-Ib. This gene codes for an aminoglycoside acetyltransferase that modifies amikacin and other aminoglyco . . .

Much of Southern California experiences a Mediterranean climate, with long, hot summers and cool, wet winters. Characteristic plants include the deeply-rooted shrubs collectively known as chaparral. Such species, including Malosma laurina (Laurel Suma . . .

LH14E is a novel small molecule, which may induce cell cycle arrest by inhibiting the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway. The canonical Wnt signaling pathway is important in cancer, developmental biology, and normal cellular functions. Despite extensive . . .

Transmembrane (TMEM)-176A and -176B proteins have been reported to play a role in human immune cell function. Similarity in structure, high homology, and a close genetic relationship enable the two proteins to physically come together to form heterome . . .

Restoration of the historically impacted Olympia oyster (Ostrea lurida, Carpenter 1864) is ongoing along the West Coast but in southern California, where restoration is underway, there is little information regarding the oyster’s genetic structure. Pr . . .

Agriculture has transformed the western Great Plains of North America from a heterogeneous landscape generated and maintained by natural disturbances to homogeneous patches of uniformly managed rangelands and croplands, with negative impacts on region . . .

The southern shield limpet, Lottia pelta (S), is a generalist species that can be found on the feather boa kelp, Egregia menziesii, at particular sites in southern California. When L. pelta (S) inhabits the kelp its phenotype is similar to the special . . .

The western black widow spider, Latrodectus hesperus, is a venomous spider that is widely distributed throughout the western United States. Despite species prevalence, research on the black widow spider is sparse. Although notorious for her mating rit . . .

The nitrogen-fixing bacterium Sinorhizobium meliloti forms a symbiosis with the legume plant Medicago sativa (alfalfa), enabling the plant to grow in nitrogen poor conditions. The S. meliloti ExoS/ChvI signaling pathway is a two-component system that . . .

Phagosome maturation is a complex, evolutionarily conserved process that allows white blood cells of the immune system to destroy microbes engulfed by phagocytosis. Despite the tremendous medical relevance of phagosome maturation, the functions of onl . . .

In late 2009, the Catalina Island Conservancy began using fertility control as a means of replacing periodic removals to manage an introduced population of American bison (Bison bison). Through the application of the immunocontraceptive vaccine porcin . . .

Erythrobacter sp. strain SD-21 is a marine bacterium that expresses a unique enzyme, the Mn(II)-oxidizing protein (MopA), that catalyzes the oxidation of Mn(II) to Mn(III/IV). Truncated MopA (HP10) containing the catalytic heme peroxidase domain was c . . .

Stromatolites, laminated accretionary structures, can provide evidence of early microbial life, allowing insight into bacterial interactions with sediment and the environment on early Earth. Modern cyanobacterial mats have shown cone-forming capabilit . . .

Sinorhizobium meliloti is a gram-negative alpha-proteobacterium that uses a twocomponent regulatory system, ExoS/ChvI, to help form a nitrogen-fixing symbiosis with legume host plants. This symbiosis is a model for studying the mechanisms used by inva . . .

The use of antibiotics to treat bacterial infections is increasingly ineffective worldwide. Genes disseminated by bacteria such as aac(6')-Ib, render aminoglycoside antibiotics ineffective, requiring discovery of new antibiotics or alternatives strate . . .

Acinetobacter baumannii is a gram negative, nosocomial pathogen, which has ability to gain resistance against antibiotics. According to CDC antibiotic resistance threats report, 2013, approximately 500 deaths happen annually in the United States of Am . . .

In the Mojave Desert, during a heavy rain, water rushes down a coalescence of alluvial fans and is distributed unevenly through naturally formed channels. When man-made structures such as roads and railroads disrupt these natural flow paths, the major . . .

Compounds that induce cell cycle arrest can potentially be used as anti-cancer therapeutics. This study explores the effects on the cell cycle by a novel class of small molecules that inhibit β-catenin. These β-catenin inhibitors are predicted to affe . . .

Chagas disease is a tropical parasitic disease caused by the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi (T. cruzi). During its life cycle, T. cruzi faces environmental challenges as it propagates from an insect vector to a mammalian host, for which it has d . . .

The spread of antibiotic resistance is rapidly threatening the effectiveness of antibiotics in the clinical setting. More infections are being caused by pathogenic bacteria that have gained resistance to many or all antibiotics that are currently avai . . .

Of the Acinetobacter genus A. baumannii is the most common cause of hospital-acquired infections, but recently additional species of Acinetobacter have been identified as origins of nosocomial infections. Studies suggest functional type IV pili (T4P) . . .

Aminoglycosides, antibiotics used to treat gram-negative bacterial infections, are becoming less viable due to the rise and dissemination of antibiotic resistance mediated by aminoglycoside modifying enzymes (AMEs). One of the most clinically relevant . . .

Plestiodon skiltonianus and Plestiodon gilberti are two closely related skink species occurring in Western North and Central America that differ in body size. Plestiodon gilberti is hypothesized to have evolved a larger body size from a P. skiltonianu . . .

The global spread of non-native seaweeds has become unavoidable due to globalization. Sargassum muticum is a canopy-forming seaweed that originated from Japan and was first observed in southern California in 1970. In this study I conducted field surve . . .

While previous studies have investigated the effects of temperature on an organismal level, we need more research on how thermal stress affects species interactions. We used a common rocky intertidal organism (the owl limpet Lottia gigantea) and its l . . .

Bone tissue is typically stored frozen (cryopreservation) for bone grafts or tissue investigation. Whole osteocytic bone, bone with osteocytes, is resistant to the damaging effects of cryopreservation. Anosteocytic bone, bone without osteocytes, is p . . .

Antibiotics are losing effectiveness as multidrug resistance among bacterial pathogens is spreading. Resistance enzymes, like AAC(6’)-Ib, allow bacteria to survive and proliferate in the presence of antibiotics. Conversely, discovery of new antibiotic . . .

Cryptic species can often cause problems for baseline and ecological studies as these species are not readily identified in the field. Lottia scabra and Lottia conus form a north/south cryptic species pair where they occupy the same habitat, but L. sc . . .

Determining the reasons behind how and why evolutionary mechanisms that establish or remove genetic variations within a population is a fundamental question in evolutionary biology. by tying together, the origin, evolutionary patterns, molecular mecha . . .

Acinetobacter baumannii has emerged over the last few decades as a major nosocomial pathogen. Its ability to acquire genetic material and survive in extreme environments has positioned it as a paradigm of multidrug resistance. Horizontal genetic trans . . .

Intraspecific variability of behavioral thermoregulation in lizards due to habitat, temperature availability, and seasonality is well documented, but variability due to sex is not. Sex-specific thermoregulatory behaviors are important to understand be . . .

The Southern California Bight receives approximately 1.5 million gallons of wastewater effluent per day. Although regional monitoring has occurred periodically since the implementation of wastewater treatment practices, few studies have attempted to i . . .

Trypanosoma cruzi is the protozoan parasite that is the causative agent of Chagas disease. This disease is endemic to Latin America but has spread to other non-endemic areas due to globalization. the disease currently lacks an FDA approved treatment, . . .